


Before the End

by corrielle



Category: Robin Hood (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-22
Updated: 2012-01-22
Packaged: 2017-10-29 23:28:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/325352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/corrielle/pseuds/corrielle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prince John’s troops are about to descend on Nottingham. Guy tries to take a quiet moment but finds Marian instead.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before the End

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spamjoe](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=spamjoe).



> This fic was written for the 2010 Secret Santa exchange at the lordgisborne lj community.

Guy’s gloved fingers were curled into a fist as he stood by the casement window. Below, on the stretch of green outside of Nottingham, another squadron of Sir Jasper’s strike force had arrived, and the odious little man was directing them up the road toward Nottingham’s gates. The soldiers all carried torches and crossbows, and from the speed with which they spurred their horses forward, they seemed eager to put both to use.

It was strangely quiet in the upper levels of the tower. All of the servants had either fled or gone down to the great hall to make their stand, and so when Guy heard footsteps behind him, he turned quickly, hand on his sword hilt.

“No need for that,” Marian said, slipping into the room and coming to stand beside him at the window. “It’s only me.”

“What are you doing up here?” Guy asked. “I thought you meant to stay in the hall… let people see that you’re still here.”

“I do mean to,” Marian told him, “but I’ve just come from my room. I needed this.” She drew back her light cloak and unsheathed the long dagger that was hanging at her belt. The blade had obviously been well cared for, and it looked wickedly sharp. “If I am to fight at your side, I want to have a weapon I know in my hand.”

As much as it thrilled him to know that she wanted to be with him in these last desperate hours, he still wished that she had gone into hiding in the store rooms beneath the castle with the children and the women who did not wish to take up arms. He did not suggest it again, though. His first attempt to send her to safety had earned him a sharp look and an angry refusal, and he did not want to fight with her with the end so near.

“I might ask you what you are doing up here,” Marian said.

“Watching,” Guy said. “Trying to keep an eye on what Jasper is up to.”

“What’s happening?” she asked.

“He’s sent men against the city gates. There.” He pointed out across the empty streets to where a few dozen of his men stood ready to defend.

“How soon will he breach the gates?” Marian asked as she sheathed her dagger.

Guy had to smile in approval. He had been ready to explain that giving up the city gates was an unavoidable eventuality, but Marian already understood.

“Very soon. We don’t have the men to hold them off for long, and I told Allan to do what he could and then fall back to the castle. There’s no sense in throwing lives away so early, and I think Allan’s scared enough for his own skin not to try any stupid heroics.”

Marian laughed and put a hand on his arm. “There are those who would say that being here at all was a prime example of… stupid heroics.”

“They would be wrong,” Guy said. “It wasn’t bravery that brought me back. It was you.”

Marian ran her hand up his arm and neck until her palm was resting on his cheek.

“I think you misjudge yourself,” she said.

He covered her hand with his own, and laced his fingers through hers. “I think—this once— that you are too kind to me. I’m only here because I could not bear to live in a world that did not have you in it.”

There. She knew. As if everything he’d done the whole miserable day hadn’t been proof of how he felt for her, he’d made it clear.

Marian closed her eyes and lowered her head, and when she looked up at him again, she had a sad, conflicted expression on her face that any other day would have let him know he’d said too much. But this was not a night for caution or for holding back.

“Earlier, I asked you to marry me,” he continued. “I know there’s no time for that now, but… before the Prince’s soldiers come…” He rested his forehead against hers for a moment and felt her breath against his cheek. “I would like to kiss you once more before the end.”

Marian nodded almost imperceptibly, and when he leaned in to kiss her, she tilted her face up to meet him.

She was warm and lithe in his arms, and he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close. There was no time to go slowly, to kiss her gently, but she did not seem to mind. Their first kiss was all ragged breathing and lips and teeth crushed hard against each other. She threaded her fingers through his hair and pressed herself against him so tightly that he could feel the rise and fall of her breasts.

Growing bolder, he brushed her hair away from her neck and kissed the smooth, white skin just below her ear. She gasped, and her eyes fell shut. That she let him take such liberties without pushing him away made his heart pound faster in his chest even as he reached for more. He kissed her neck and then the top of her shoulder through her sea-green dress, and her fingers instinctively grasped at a handful of his hair.

He grunted softly as she pulled him down to her, kissing his neck and nipping at his ear. It was all he could do to keep from tearing at the laces of her bodice. However, when she ran a hand down his chest and traced the line of his hip, he gasped and roughly backed her up against the wall. The rough, uncut stone was cold against his hand when he put it out to keep them balanced, but the heat that was rising in him was so intoxicating that he barely noticed.

She hooked one ankle around his calf to steady herself, and Guy groaned at having her legs and her belly so close to his. He ran his hand down her back, over the curve of her ass, and down the back of her thigh as far as he could reach. He wanted to touch all of her, to feel as much of her as he could after making do with his imagination for so long. She shuddered, and he pressed himself against her.

“You kiss me like a desperate man… one without hope,” Marian whispered.

“I doubt that either of us will live to see the morning,” Guy said. “But, we are both alive now...”

He had only meant to kiss her one last time, but she had set fire to his blood. His fingers curled around her upper arms, and he rolled his hips so that the ache in his trousers pressed against her stomach. If she was surprised to find him hard, she did not show it. In fact, she seemed to know just how to move against him to suggest the promise of release.

Any control he had still clung to vanished. He grasped at her skirt, hiking it up around her knees. He felt her tense to spring, and he caught her with one hand beneath each thigh as she wrapped her legs around his waist and braced her back against the wall. He buried his face in Marian’s auburn hair, and he rubbed against her and listened to her breath catch in her throat.

“Guy…” Marian murmured, her voice heady with need. He could not imagine a sweeter sound. The heat of her lips seared his neck as he fumbled with the laces of his trousers with one hand. He had worked through the first knot and pushed the silky fabric of her dress away from one smooth shoulder when the quick, urgent peal of the bells in the watchtower rang out over the city.

Quickly, he set Marian down and looked down into Nottingham. Allan and the few men who had defended the gate were tearing down the High Street as fast as they could run. Behind them, the street was thick with cavalry. Guy heard the rumble of the portcullis being raised, and scant seconds later, he heard it crash closed again. He hoped that Allan and his men had made it through safely.

The advance guard was close now. In a few heartbeats, they would be able to touch the walls.

"The army is at the gates," he said quietly.

Marian sighed, and he did not think he flattered himself when he read disappointment on her face. He knew he would not go into this fight without regrets for what might have been if Prince John’s soldiers had held off for just a little while longer. For Marian’s part, she straightened her back and held her head high. "We should go," she said. "We have a castle to defend."

He offered her his hand as they turned to leave, and she took it without question or hesitation.


End file.
